Like most high school seniors, I’m anxiously awaiting college acceptance letters. But there’s an even more important decision that will determine my future next year. That’s the New Jersey state Legislature’s vote on giving equal access to financial aid to Dreamers like me.

I came to the United States from El Salvador when I was 2 years old with my older sister and my mother. We’ve lived in New Jersey ever since. I don’t have any memories of El Salvador. My proudest and earliest memories happened in New Jersey, like the time in second grade when I was honored as the “Most Avid Reader” in my class and the moment of sheer happiness when I received an acceptance letter from a Gifted and Talented middle school.

In high school I have completed the same projects as my classmates, have been inducted into the National Honor Society and have submitted the same statistics homework, only to learn that we are not equal. Sometimes I wonder why I’ve worked so hard throughout my four years of high school only to find New Jersey’s excellent state colleges and universities financially out of reach. Given the rising cost of college here in New Jersey, good grades and hard work mean little when you are ineligible for state financial aid, as Dreamers are in New Jersey.

Five years ago, Dreamers like me fought to win in-state tuition in New Jersey. Before that, we were charged out-of-state or sometimes even the international student rates — triple what a classmate would pay — even though we grew up here and graduated from high school in this very state. We won that fight, and so many students have benefited from being eligible for in-state tuition rates. But as tuition rates go up, not having financial aid options is a serious bar to going to college.

About 200 people rallied in Newark recently on behalf of 'Dreamers,' young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.(Photo: Monsy Alvarado/NorthJersey.com)

The president and Congress are playing with my future and the future of Dreamers across the country by ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Last week, Congress failed to meet President Donald Trump’s self-imposed deadline to pass a Dream Act, which would give Dreamers like me a pathway to citizenship. At the same time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested 42 percent more people in New Jersey over the past year. As I write, Dreamers like me are in immigration detention in New Jersey, facing deportation. I am weeks away from receiving college decisions, but like so many Dreamers, as I plan for my future, I feel like I’m moving through the dark and I can’t find a rail to guide me through.

Our state needs to stand up for Dreamers and have our backs. We need each other.

New Jersey needs its Dreamers to go to college, become part of the workforce and buy houses. And this legislation has given the Dreamers of New Jersey hope that if the federal government won’t give us an equal opportunity to persevere with our peers, our own lawmakers in this state will stand up and fight with us.

I talk with fellow Dreamers in New Jersey every day, and we are watching this legislation closely. It is empowering to know that New Jersey can stand with us. We know we will get through these dark years and fight our hardest. In the meantime, I want to go to college and finish my education. When I graduate, I hope to live in a country that will finally welcome me.

Erika Martinez is a youth leader at Make the Road New Jersey and a senior at the Union County Academy for Allied Health Sciences.